Wuhan Airlines Flight 343
| Wuhan Airlines Flight 343 | |
|---|---|
 A Wuhan Airlines machine of the same construction |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Loss of control due to wind shear and lightning strike |
| place |
Han River at Sitai, Yongfeng District, Hanyang , People's Republic of China
|
| date | June 22, 2000 |
| Fatalities | 42 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Fatalities on the ground | 7th |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type |
Xian Yunshuji Y-7-100C
|
| operator |
Wuhan Airlines
|
| Mark |
B-3479
|
| Departure airport |
Enshi Airport , People's Republic of China
|
| Destination airport |
Wuhan-Wangjiadun Airport , People's Republic of China
|
| Passengers | 38 |
| crew | 4th |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
On the Wuhan Airlines Flight 343 (flight number IATA : WU343 , ICAO : CWU343 ) took place on 22 June 2000 a serious air accident. A Xian Yunshuji Y 7-100C of Wuhan Airlines , with a domestic scheduled flight from Enshi to Wuhan should be performed, thereby got into windshear and collapsed after a lightning strike apart. Part of the machine crashed into a house, another into a river. 49 people were killed in the accident, including seven people on the ground.
plane
The aircraft was a Xian Yunshuji Y-7-100C built in 1988 with the factory number 06708 . The Xian Y-7 is an Antonov An-24 that is reverse-engineered in China without an official Soviet or Ukrainian license . After its completion, the machine was delivered to Wuhan Airlines, which was founded in 1986 and has been continuously operated by them ever since. The twin-engine regional airliner was equipped with two Harbin WJ-5A-1 turboprop engines. By the time of the accident, the machine had completed 13,811 operating hours, which accounted for 11,724 take-offs and landings. The machine had thus reached two thirds of its intended service life.
Crew and passengers
The flight from Enshi to Wuhan , which Wuhan Airlines operated twice a day, had 38 passengers that afternoon. There was a four-person crew on board, consisting of the flight captain Chen Baoan, who was certified as test captain, in the right pilot's seat, the first officer Yan Fangjian in the left pilot's seat in the role of pilot flying, the flight engineer Luo Guiming and a flight attendant.
the accident
The plane took off from Enshi at 1:37 p.m., rose to its cruising altitude of 4,500 meters and was scheduled to land in Wuhan at 2:40 p.m. At 2:10 p.m. they overflown Yichang and at 2:30 p.m. Tianmen. When the plane approached the destination airport, the weather around the city was difficult. The Xian flew into a storm front with heavy rain and shear winds. Air traffic control instructed the crew to raise the aircraft and wait for further instructions. The pilots flew over Wuhan holding patterns for 30 minutes, waiting for the thunderstorm to pass. The meteorological service in Wuhan counted 451 thunderbolts within a period of 10 minutes.
The first officer suggested flying to another airport, but the pilot decided to continue the approach to Wuhan. A little later, the crew announced that they would evade to Wuhan-Tianhe Airport , which was confirmed by the air traffic control there. Shortly afterwards, at 2:54 p.m., radio contact with the machine was broken. Shortly afterwards, the Xian was caught in a wind shear and pushed to the ground, after which lightning struck the machine. The plane exploded and was torn apart in midair. The machine crashed near Sitai Village, Yongfeng District, Hanyang District . The stern hit a pump ship that was moored on the south bank of the Han River , near a brick factory. The prow fell on a farmhouse. In addition to the 42 occupants of the machine, seven men who were employees of the neighboring brick factory and who were installing water pump generators on the ship at the time of the accident were killed in the accident.
Victim
The accident claimed 49 lives, including all 42 occupants of the machine and the seven workers on the ship. There were initially eight people on the ship. The eighth person, a fisherman, had disembarked before the accident around 2 p.m. for a medical examination and found the destroyed ship as well as debris and baggage floating in the river after his return around 3:30 p.m. The passengers killed also included three middle school students (including a pair of twins) aged 15 and their two mothers, as well as a 17-year-old middle school student who was supposed to take his exams in Wuhan.
causes
The investigation revealed that there were two heavily charged storm clouds over Wuhan. The plane that crashed had no technical defects before the incident and was not overloaded that day.
The Hubei Provincial Meteorological Bureau announced that the area was experiencing severe thunderstorms at the time of the crash. According to the radar and flight recorder analysis, the aircraft entered a severe thunderstorm zone during the approach, was hit by a microburst and crashed. It was also found that the pilots had violated the operating rules of the Civil Aviation Authority of China by attempting to conduct a visual flight, although the required visual conditions were not in place and the visual flight was initiated without clearance from air traffic control in Hankou. Because of the heavy rain, visibility was only two to three meters.
consequences
After the accident, all Xian X-7 machines were grounded in the People's Republic of China. The remaining six machines of this type, which were in operation at Wuhan Airlines, underwent extensive safety inspections. The airline flew the routes on the day after the accident using Boeing 737-3Q8 aircraft and deployed cockpit crews, each consisting of two flight captains, on the routes in order to increase the level of safety. After a month after the incident it was established that the difficult weather conditions had led to the accident, the machines were approved for operation again. On July 16, there was a single flight on the Wuhan-Enshi route; from July 17, the machines were again in continuous use. After the accident, Wuhan Airlines' flights were moved from Enshi to the new Wuhan-Tianhe Airport.
swell
- Accident report Xian Y-7-100 B-3479 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on March 2, 2020.
- Air Crash Killing 42 in Central China's Wuhan , People's Daily, June 23, 2000.
- 站 内 网络 武汉 航空公司 Y7-100 / B3479 号 飞机 “6.22” 空难 事故 的 调查 分析 , hbsafety.cn of December 22, 2006.
- 武 航 一 客机 在 武汉 坠毁 机 上 42 人 全部 罹难 , sina.com.cn from June 22, 2000.
- 各 航空公司 纷纷 停飞 “运 七” , sina.com.cn from June 27, 2000.
- 华西都市报 ： 武汉 空难 现场 仅距 闹市 40 米 , sina.com.cn from June 23, 2000.
- 《湖北 日报》 报道 武 航 客机 失事 详情 , sina.com.cn from June 23, 2000.
- 武 航空 难 共有 四 十九 人 死亡 , chinanews.com, June 24, 2000.
- 武 航 今起 运 七 飞机 全线 停飞 , sina.com.cn from June 23, 2000.
- “6.22 空难” 后 恩施 复 航 第一班 , sina.com.cn of July 20, 2000.
- 武汉 - 恩施 航线 将于 7 月 10 日 复 飞 , cctv.com.
Coordinates: 30 ° 35 ′ 6 ″ N , 114 ° 6 ′ 17 ″ E